We will begin
part 2, Chapter 9, and we will title this, “The Death Experience. “

What happens at
the point of death? The question is much more easily asked than answered.
Basically there is not any particular point of death in those terms, even in the
case of sudden accident. I will attempt to give you a practical answer to what
you think of as this practical question, however. What the question the really
means to most people is this: What will happen when I am not alive in physical
terms any longer? “What will I feel? Will I still be myself? Will the emotions
that propelled me in this life continue to do so? Is there a heaven or hell?
Will I be greeted by guides or demons, enemies, or beloved ones? Most of all the
question means; when I’m dead, will I still be who I am now, and will remember
those who are dear to me now?

I will answer the
questions in those terms also, then; but before I do so, there are several
seemingly impractical considerations concerning the nature of life and death,
with which we must deal.

First of all, let
us consider the fact just mentioned. There is no separate, indivisible, specific
point of death. Life is a state of becoming, and death is a part of this process
of becoming. You are alive now, a consciousness knowing itself, sparkling with
cognition amid the debris of dead and dying cells; alive while the atoms and
molecules of your body die and are reborn. You are alive, therefore, in the
midst of small deaths; portions of your own image crumble away moment by moment
and are replaced, and you scarcely give the matter a thought. So you are to some
extent now live in the midst of the death of yourself---alive despite, and yet
because of, the multitudinous deaths in rebirths the occur within your body in
physical terms.

If the cells did
not die and were not replenished, the physical image would not continue to
exist, so now in the present, as you know it, your consciousness flickers about
your ever-changing corporeal image.

In many ways you
can compare your consciousness as you know it now to a fire fly, for while it
seems to you that your consciousness is continuous, this is not so. It also
flicker’s of and on, though as we mentioned earlier, it is never completely
extinguished. Its focus is not nearly as constant as you suppose, however. So as
you are alive in the midst of your own multitudinous small deaths, so though you
do not realize it, you are often “dead,“ even amid the sparkling life of your
own consciousness.

I am using your
own terms here. By “dead,“ therefore, I mean completely unfocused in physical
reality. Now your consciousness, quite simply, is not physically alive,
physically orientated, for exactly the same lifetime as it is physically alive
and orientated. This may sound confusing, but hopefully we shall make it
clearer. There are pulsations of consciousness, though again you may not be
aware of them.

Consider this
analogy. For one instant consciousness is “alive,“ focused in physical reality.
Now for the next instant it is focused somewhere else entirely, in a different
system of reality. It is unalive, or “ dead “ to your way of thinking the next
instant it is alive again, focused in your reality, but you are not aware of the
intervening instant of unaliveness. Your sense of continuity therefore is built
up entirely on every other pulsation of consciousness. Is that clear to you?

Remember this is
an analogy, so that the word “instant “should not be taken too literally. There
is, then, what we can call an underside of consciousness. Now in the same way,
atoms and molecules exist so that they are “dead,” or inactive within your
system, then alive or active, but you cannot perceive the instant in which they
do not exist. Since your bodies and your entire physical universe are composed
of atoms and molecules, then I am telling you that the entire structure exists
in the same manner. It flicker’s off and on, in other words, and in a certain
rhythm, has, say, the rhythm of breath.

There are overall
rhythms, and within them in an infinity of individual variations-almost like
cosmic metabolism. In these terms, what you call death is simply the insertion
of a longer duration of that pulsation of which you were not aware, a long pause
then other dimension, so speak.

The death, say,
of physical tissue, is merely a part of the process of life as you know in your
system, a part of the process of becoming. And from those tissues, as you know,
new life will spring.

Consciousness--human
consciousness--is not dependent upon the tissues, and yet there is no physical
matter that is not brought into being by some portion of consciousness. For
example, when your individual consciousness has left the body in a way that I
will shortly explain, then the simple consciousness of atoms and molecules
remain, and are not annihilated.

You may take a break and we
shall continue.

Now: In your
present situation you arbitrarily consider yourselves to be dependent upon one
given physical image: you identify yourself with your body.

As mentioned
earlier, all through your lifetime, portions of that body die, and the body you
have now does not contain one particle of physical matter that “it “ had, say 10
years ago. Your body is completely different now, then, than it was 10 years
ago. The body did you had 10 years ago, my dear readers, is dead. Yet obviously
you do not feel that you are dead, and you’re quite able to read this book with
the eyes that are composed of completely new matter. The pupils, the “identical”
pupils that you have now, did not exist ten years ago, and yet there seems to be
no great gap in your vision.

This process, you
see, continues so smoothly that you are not aware of it. The pulses mentioned
earlier are so short in duration that your consciousness skips over them
merrily, yet your physical perception cannot seem to bridge the gap when the
longer rhythm of pulsation occurs. And so this is the time that you perceive as
death. What you want to know, therefore, is what happens when your consciousness
is directed away from physical reality, and when momentarily is seems to have no
image to wear.

Quite practically
speaking, there is no one answer, for each of you is an individual. Generally
speaking, of course, there is an answer that will serve to cover main issues of
this experience, but the kinds of deaths have much to do with the experience
that consciousness undergoes. Also involved is the development of the
consciousness itself, and its overall characteristic method of handling
experience.

The ideas that
you have involving the nature of reality will strongly color your experiences,
for you will interpret them in the light of your beliefs, even as you now
interpret daily life according to your ideas of what is possible or not
possible. Your consciousness may withdraw from your body slowly or quickly,
according to many variables.

In many cases of
senility, for example, the strongly organized portions of personality have
already left the body, and are meeting the new circumstances. The fear of death
itself can cause such a psychological panic that out of a sense of self
preservation and defense you lower your consciousness so that you are left in a
state of coma, and you may take some time to recover.

A belief in hell
fires can cause you to hallucinate Hades conditions. A belief in a stereotype
heaven can result in a hallucination of heavenly conditions. You always form
your own reality according to your ideas and expectations. This is the nature of
consciousness in what ever reality it finds itself. Such hallucinations, I
assure you, are temporary.

Consciousness
must use its abilities. The boredom and stagnation of a stereotype heaven will
not for long content the striving consciousness. There are teachers to explain
the conditions and circumstances. You are not left alone, therefore, lost in
mazes of hallucination. You may or may not realize immediately that you are dead
in physical terms.

You will find
yourself in another form, an image that will appear physical to you to a large
degree, as long as you do not try to manipulate within the physical system with
it. Then the differences between it and the physical body will become obvious.

If you firmly
believe that your consciousness is a product of your physical body, then you may
attempt to cling to it. There is an order of personalities, an honor guard, so
speak, who are ever ready to lend assistance and aid, however.

Now this honorary
guard is made up of people in your terms both living and dead. Those who are
living in your system of reality perform these activities in an “out of body“
experience while the physical body sleeps. They are familiar with the projection
of consciousness, with the sensations involved, and they help orientate those
who will not be returning to the physical body.

These people are
particularly helpful because they are still involved with physical reality, and
have a more immediate understanding of the feelings and emotions involved at
your end. Such persons may or may not have a memory of their nightly activities.
Experiences with projection of consciousness and knowledge of the mobility of
consciousness are therefore very helpful as preparation for death. You can
experience the after death in environment beforehand, so to speak, and learn the
conditions that will be encountered.

This is not,
incidentally, necessarily any kind of somber endeavor, nor are the
after-environments somber at all. To the contrary, they are generally far more
intense and joyful than the reality you know now.

You will simply
be learning to operate in a new environment in which different laws apply, and
the laws are far less limiting than the physical ones with which you now
operate. In other words, you must learn to understand and use new freedoms.

Even these
experiences will vary, however, and even this date is a state of becoming, for
many will continue into other physical lives. Some will exist and develop their
abilities in different systems of reality altogether, and so for a time will
remain in this “intermediary” state.

Now: For those of
you who are lazy I can offer no hope: death will not bring you in an eternal
resting place. You may rest if this is your wish, for a while. Not only must you
use your abilities after death, however, but you must face up to yourself for
those that you did not use during your previous existence.

Those of you who
have faith in life after death will find it much easier to accustom yourself to
the new conditions. Those of you who do not have such faith may gain it in a
different way, by following through in the exercises I will give you later in
this book; for these will enable you to extend your perceptions to these other
layers of reality if you a re persistent, expectant, and determined.

Now consciousness
as you know it is used to these brief gaps of physical nonexistence mentioned
earlier. Longer gaps disorient it to varying degrees, but these are not unusual.
When the physical body sleeps, consciousness often leaves the physical system
for fairly long periods, in your terms. But because the consciousness is not in
the normal physically awake state, is not aware of these gaps and is relatively
unconcerned.

If consciousness
vacated the body for the same amount of time from a normally physically awake
state, it would consider itself dead, for it could not rationalize the gap of
dimension and experience. Therefore in the sleep state, each of you have
undergone—to some degree—the same kind of absence of consciousness from physical
reality that you experience during death.

In these cases,
you return to the body, but you have passed over the threshold into these other
resistances many many times, so it will not be as unfamiliar to you as you may
now suppose. Dream-recall experiments and other mental disciplines to be
mentioned later will make these points quite clear to all of you who embark upon
the suggested exercises.

Now, you may or
may not be greeted by friends or relatives immediately following death. This is
a personal matter, as always. Overall, you may be far more interested in people
that you have known in past lives than those close to you in the present one,
for example.

Your true
feelings towards relatives who are also dead will be known to you and to them.
There is no hypocrisy. You do not pretend to love the parent who did little to
earn your respect or love. Telepathy operates without distortion in this
after-death period, so you must deal with the true relationships that exist
between yourself and all relatives and friends who await you.

You may find that
someone you considered merely an enemy actually deserved your love and respect,
for example, and you will then treat him accordingly. Your own motives will be
crystal clear. You will react to this clearness, however, in your own way. You
will not be automatically wise if you were not so before, but neither will there
be a way to hide from your own feelings, emotions, or motives. Whether or not
you accept inferior motives in yourself or learn from them is still up to you.
The opportunities for growth and development are very rich, however, and the
learning methods at your disposal are very effective.

You examine the
fabric of the existence you have left, and you learn to understand how your
experiences were the result of your own thoughts and emotions and how these
affected others. Until this examination is through, you are not yet aware of the
larger portions of your own identity. When you realize the significance and
meeting of the life you have just left, then you are ready for conscious
knowledge of your other resistances.

You become aware,
then, of an expanded awareness. What you are begins to include what you have
been in other lives, and you began to make plans for your next physical
existence, if you decide upon one. You can instead enter another level of
reality, and then return to physical experience if you choose.

Session 536, June 22, 1970.

Pages 122-128

Now: We will
continue dictation.

Your
consciousness, as you think of it, may of course leave your body entirely before
physical death. (as mentioned earlier, there is no precise point of death, but I
am speaking as if there is for the sake of your convenience. )

Now: Your
consciousness leaves the physical organism in various ways, according to the
conditions. In some cases the organism itself is still able to function to some
degree, although without the leadership or organization that existed previously.
The simple consciousness of atoms, cells, and organs continue to exist, after
the main consciousness has left, for some time.

There may or may
not be disorientation on your part, according to your beliefs and development.
Now I do not necessarily mean intellectual development. The intellect should go
hand-in-hand with the emotions an the intuitions, but if it pulls against these
too strongly, difficulties can arise when the newly freed consciousness seizes
upon its ideas about reality after death, rather than facing a particular
reality in which it finds itself. It can deny feeling, in other words, and even
attempt to argue itself out of its present independence from the body.

Again, as
mentioned earlier, an individual can be so certain that death is the end of all;
that oblivion, though temporary, results. In many cases, immediately upon
leaving the body there is, of course, amazement and the recognition of the
situation. The body itself may be viewed for example, and many funerals have a
guest of honor amidst the company—and no one

gazes into the face of the
corpse with as much curiosity and wonder.

At this point
many variations in behavior emerge, each the result of the individual
background, knowledge, and habit. The surroundings in which the dead find
themselves will often vary. Vivid hallucinations may form experience quite as
real as any in mortal life. Now, I have told you that thoughts and emotions form
physical reality, and they form after death experience. This does not mean that
the experiences are not valid, anymore than it means the physical life is not
valid.

Certain images
have been used to symbolize such a transition from one existence to another, and
many of these are extremely valuable in that they provide a framework with
understandable references. The crossing of the River Styx is such a one. The
dying expected certain procedures to occur in a more or less orderly fashion.
The maps were known beforehand. At death, the consciousness hallucinated the
river vividly. Relatives and friends already dead entered into the ritual, which
was a profound ceremony also on their parts. The river was as real as any that
you know, as treacherous to a traveler along without proper knowledge. Guides
were always at river to help such travelers across.

Itdoes
not do to say that such a river is illusion. The symbol is reality, you see.
The way was planned. Now, that particular map is no longer generally in use.
The living do not know how read it. Christianity has believed in a heaven and a
hell, a purgatory, and a reckoning; and so, at death, to those who believe in
these symbols, another ceremony is enacted, and the guides take on the guises of
those beloved figures of Christian saints and heroes.

Then with this as
a framework, and in terms that they can understand, such individuals are told
the true situation. Mass religious movements have for centuries fulfilled that
purpose, in giving man some plan to be followed. It little mattered that later
the plan was seen as a child’s primary, a book of instructions complete with
colorful tales, for the main purpose was served and there was little
disorientation.

In periods where
no such mass ideas are held, there is more disorientation, and when life after
death is completely denied, the problem is somewhat magnified. Many, of course,
are overjoyed to find themselves still conscious. Others have to learn all over
again about certain laws of behavior, for they do not realize the creative
potency of their thoughts or emotions.

Such an
individual may find himself in 10 different environments within the flicker of
an eyelash, for example, with no idea of the reason behind the situation. He
will see no continuity at all, and feel himself flung without rhyme or reason
from one experience to another, never realizing that his own thoughts are
propelling him quite literally.

I am speaking now
of the events immediately following death, for there are other stages. Guides
will helpfully become a part of your hallucinations, in order to help you out of
them, but they must first of all get your trust.

At one time—in
your terms—I myself acted in such a guide; as in a sleep state Rupert now
follows the same road. The situation is rather tricky from the guide’s
viewpoint, for psychologically utmost discretion must be used. One man’s Moses,
as I discovered, may not be another man’s Moses. I have served as a rather
credible Moses on several occasions—and once, though this is hard to believe, to
an Arab.

The Arab was a
very interesting character, by the way, and to illustrate some of the
difficulties involved, I will tell you about him. He hated the Jews, but
somehow he was a obsessed with the idea that Moses was more powerful than Allah,
and for years this was the secret sin upon his conscience. He spent some time in
Constantinople at the time of the Crusades. He was captured, and ended up with a
group of Turks, all to be executed by the Christians, in this case very horribly
so. They forced his mouth open and stuffed it with burning coals, as a starter.
He cried to Allah, and then in greater desperation to Moses, and as his
consciousness left his body, Moses was there.

He believed in
Moses more they did Allah, and I did not know until the last moment which form I
was to assume. He was a very likeable chap, and under the circumstances I did
not mind when he seemed to expect a battle for his Soul. Moses and Allah were
to fight for him. He could not rid himself of the idea of force, though he had
died by force, and nothing could persuade him to accept any kind of peace or
contentment, or any rest, until some kind of battle was wrought.

A friend and I,
along with some others, stage the ceremony, and from opposite clouds in the sky
Allah and I shouted our claims upon his soul—while he, poor man, a cowered on
the ground between us. Now while I tell this story humorously, you must
understand that the man’s belief brought it about, and so to set him free, we
worked it through.

I called upon
Jehovah, but to no avail, because our Arab did not know of Jehovah -- only of
Moses—and it was in Moses he put his faith. Allah drew a cosmic sword and set it
afire so that he dropped it. It fell to the ground and set the land aflame. Our
Arab and cried out again. He saw leagues of followers behind Allah, and so
leagues of followers appear behind me. Our friend convinced that one of the
three of us must be destroyed, and he feared mightily that he would be the
victim.

Finally the
opposing clouds in which we appeared came closer. In my hand I held a tablet
that said: “Thou shall not kill. “ Allah held a sword. As we came closer
together we exchanged these items, and our followers merged. We came together,
forming the image of a s-u-n, and we said: “we are one.“

The two
diametrically opposed ideas had to merge or the man would have had no peace, and
only when these opposites were united could we begin to explain his situation.

Now: to be such a
guide requires great discipline and training. Before the event just mentioned,
for example, I have spent many lifetimes acting as a guide under a tutorship of
another in my daily sleep states.

It is possible
for example to lose yourself momentarily in the hallucinations that are being
formed, and in such cases another teacher must bail you out. Delicate probing of
the psychological process is necessary, and the variety of hallucinations in
which you may become involved is endless. You may, for example, take the form of
an individual’s dearly beloved dead pet.

All of these
hallucinatory activities take place usually some short time immediately
following death. Some individuals are fully aware of their circumstances,
however, because of previous training and development, and they are ready after
a rest, if they desire to progress to other stages.

They may, for
example, become aware of their own reincarnation selves, recognizing quite
readily personalities they knew in other lives, if those personalities are not
otherwise engaged. They may deliberately now hallucinate, or they may “relive“
certain portions of past lives if they choose. Then there is a period
self-examination, a rendering of accounts, so to speak, in which they are able
to view their entire performance, their abilities and weak points and to decide
whether or not they will return to physical existence.

Any given
individual may experience any of the stages, you see; except for the
self-examination, many may be sidestepped entirely. Since the emotions are so
important, it is of great benefit if friends are waiting for you. In many
instances, however, these friends have progressed to other stages of activity,
and often a guide will take the guise of a friend for a while, so that you will
feel more confident.

Of course, it is
only because most people believe that you cannot leave your body that you do not
consciously have out of body experiences with any frequency, generally speaking,
in your lifetimes. Such experiences would acquaint you far better than words
with some understanding of the conditions that will be encountered.

Remember that in
one way, your physical existence is the result of mass hallucination. Vast gulfs
exist between one man’s reality and others. After death, experience has as much
organization, highly intricate and involved, as you know now. You have your
private hallucinations now, only you do not realize what they are. Such
hallucinations as I’ve been speaking of, intense symbolic encounters, can also
occur in your sleep states, when the personality is at a time of great change,
or when opposing ideas must be unified, or if one must give way to another.
These are highly charged, significant psychological and psychic events, whether
they happen before or after death.

Occurring in the
dream state, they can change the course of civilization. After death, an
individual may visualize his (immediately previous physical) life as an animal
with which he must come to terms, and such a battle or encounter has far
reaching consequences, for the man must come to terms with all portions of
himself. In this case, whether the hallucination ends with him riding the
animal, making friends with it, domesticating it, killing it or being killed by
it, each alterative is carefully weighed, and results will have much to do with
his future development.

This “life symbolization“
may be adapted by those who gave little thought to self examination during their
lifetime. It is a part of the self examination process, therefore, in which an
individual forms his life into an image and then deals with it. Such a method is
not used by all. Sometimes a series of such episodes are necessary. . .